Brian D. Wirth
Associate Professor

Date of initial appointment:

2002

Education

EducationB.S. Nuclear Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (1992)
Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara (1998)

Major Awards

2003 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
2003 Early Career Scientists and Engineer Award, U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Defense Programs
National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award (2006-2011)

Field of specialization and areas of interest

Radiation damage in structural metals and alloys; computational materials science; mechanical properties of metals; defect cluster physics; characterization of materials microstructure by positron annihilation spectroscopy and small angle scattering.

Teaching and Research

Brian D. Wirth teaches the nuclear engineering laboratory (NE104B) and courses in nuclear materials dealing with irradiation effects in metals. His research interests involve developing improved understanding and predictive performance models of the effect of neutron and high energy particle irradiation on the microstructure, properties and performance of structural materials in current and future nuclear energy technologies. More specifically, his research is involved in investigating the long-time evolution of the primary defects produced in displacement cascades and the consequences of this evolution on the underlying microstructure, mechanical properties and performance. His research involves combining multiscale computational materials science techniques of molecular dynamics and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations with microstructural characterization of microstructure, involving positron annihilation spectroscopy and small angleneutron scattering.

Embrittlement of Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels
Wirth Research Group

The objective of this work is to answer the outstanding questions regarding the irradiation hardening and embrittlement of reactor pressure vessel steels, which threaten to limit the operating lifetime of nuclear power plants worldwide.

Fusion Reactor Materials
Wirth Research Group

This research aims to apply predictive, physically based multiscale modeling to improve understanding of the underlying mechanisms of material changes in the fusion environment, with the ultimate objective to aid development of advanced materials.

Selected Recent Publications

J.-H. Shim, H.-J. Lee and B.D. Wirth, "Molecular dynamics simulation of primary irradiation defect formation in Fe-10%Cr", J. Nucl. Mater 351 (2006) 56.

L. Ventelon, B.D. Wirth and C. Domain, "Helium - self-interstitial atom interaction in ±-iron", J. Nucl. Mater 351 (2006) 119.

S.C. Glade, B.D. Wirth, G.R. Odette and P. Asoka-Kumar, "Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy and Small Angle Neutron Scattering Characterization of Nanostructural Features in High-Nickel Model Reactor Pressure Vessel Steels", J. Nucl. Mater 351 (2006) 197.

J.S. Robach, I.M. Robertson, H.-J. Lee, and B.D. Wirth, "Dynamic observations and atomistic simulations of dislocation - defect interactions in rapidly quenched copper and gold", Acta Mat 54 (2006) 1679.

G.R. Odette and B.D. Wirth, "Radiation Effects in Fission and Fusion Reactors", contributed article in Handbook of Materials Modeling. Volume I: Methods and Models (Springer, Netherlands, 2005), Article 2.29.

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